Goodbye
by DancingKirby
Summary: Sid Garam loved his brother.  Now, he'll find out how difficult it is to say goodbye.  Very sad fic, with Season 3 spoilers.  Partially inspired by the Spice Girls song of the same title.


A/N: Please, don't run away because I mentioned the Spice Girls! I really like the song this was based on, and I thought it would make a good title. It was difficult, but I managed to refrain from putting song lyrics in the fic itself. :P If you're interested in hearing the song, I would recommend searching for it on Youtube.

This is quite possibly the saddest thing I've ever written. I hope it's not cheesy or anything. I'm really just glad that I got my inspiration back for the moment...I wasn't expecting it to happen so suddenly. I tried to remember how I thought about things when I was seven, so this story can be as authentic as possible.

Unfortunately, Sid is not in the character filter, so I'm just going to put this under Amon's name.

* * *

Sid was doing his favorite activity when the strange people showed up at his house. He was drawing. He had loved art for as long as he could remember. He wasn't quite sure why; it just came naturally to him. At first, he had just drawn a bunch of dumb, scribbly stuff. Now, however, even Dad had to admit that it was pretty good. After all, Sid would be eight next month...he was practically a teenager now!

Sid hoped that Amon would come back home soon. It was really lonely in the house without him. He would be sure to make an extra-special drawing for him, since Amon was the only one who truly seemed to appreciate his artwork. Sure, Mom and Dad and Ekou would _look_ at it, and praise appropriately, but it wasn't the same. Sid was perfectly okay with letting Amon run the company when it came time to do that...business stuff was boring! That way, they could both be happy. Amon would be in charge, and Sid would be left alone with his sketchbook. Dad never listened to this, though.

Suddenly, there came a loud, businesslike knock on the door. Sid was badly startled. He had been so absorbed in his thoughts, he hadn't even heard the car pull up in the driveway. Now there was a big ugly line in the middle of his drawing from where his hand had jerked in surprise. What was more, it was colored pencil, and that took like forever to erase! Maybe he should just start over.

For now, however, Sid wanted to see who these people were. He knew that it was against the rules to eavesdrop on grown-up conversations, but his curiosity overwhelmed his common sense.

Sid watched from the doorway of the drawing room as Aviva, the housekeeper, ran to open the door. There wasn't a clear view of the visitor, since Aviva was a fairly large woman and was therefore blocking Sid's view. He couldn't hear what they were saying either...they were speaking in such low voices. It was almost like they _knew_ he was listening, and they were purposely making it so he couldn't hear.

In fact, this was so disappointing to Sid that he turned back into the room to try to erase that stray line. He had the door nearly closed when he heard Aviva cry out in disbelief.

"Is this some kind of joke?!" she demanded. "This is not the sort of thing to joke about, you know."

Sid heard a serious male voice say that, no, it was not a joke.

Aviva paused. It was almost like she was unsure of what to do. This was unusual. Sid knew Aviva to be a capable woman who could reach the right decision quickly. Finally, she said, "All right then, I'll get them..." and hurried off. It sort of sounded like she was crying...another unusual action for her.

Sid felt a bit worried now. He guessed that this was why eavesdropping was against the rules in the first place. However, it seemed like Mom and Dad would fix everything, so Sid decided to go back to his project.

* * *

It was about an hour later. Sid had all but forgotten about the incident at the door. Now, however, he began to find it difficult to concentrate. Aviva had not yet been in to force Sid to take his medicine. She did that every single day at 4 PM, and now it was 4:30. Neither she nor his parents had emerged from their meeting with the stranger.

Maybe she had just forgotten. As much as grown-ups hated to admit it, they made mistakes sometimes too. Besides, it was just one day without medicine. Sid had taken it every other day, so there was enough of it in his body to skip one dose as far as he was concerned. If it had been any day but today, he would have been happy about it. It took forever for him to swallow those stupid pills, and they dissolved in his mouth and tasted all nasty.

Just as Sid started to get happy about being spared the medicine torture for today, he heard the meeting-room door open. The strange men walked out first and headed for the front door. They kept saying something that sounded suspiciously like, "I'm sorry."

Next out was Aviva. This time, she really _was_ crying.

"Yes, Ma'am, I'm going to get him now," she said while trying in vain to hold back her tears. Sid shrank back in the doorway. He was the only person in the house other than the servants, so he was certain that she had been talking about him. Were they going to punish him for eavesdropping? At least it seemed like the medicine had been forgotten for the moment.

But when Aviva reached the drawing room, she didn't look angry at Sid. She just looked very sad.

"Your parents want to talk to you. Come with me, please," she said in a relatively controlled voice. Sid followed her obediently. He didn't want to cause any more trouble than had evidently happened already.

Once in the meeting room, Sid got another shock when he saw _Mom_ crying as well. She _never_ cried about anything where anybody could see her. If she got upset about anything, she would usually retire to her room. But here she was, sobbing into her handkerchief where everyone could see. This was so upsetting that Sid started feeling tears coming to his own eyes when they hadn't even told him anything yet.

At least Dad looked relatively normal. And, as was usual even in normal family meetings, he did all of the talking.

"We have something very important to tell you, Sid," he began in a somber voice. This was what he said to begin every meeting no matter what the subject, so Sid was slightly reassured.

But then all of that was shattered as Dad continued, "Sid...your brother and sister will not be coming back home."

Sid grew angry.

"Why would they do that?!" he demanded, "Amon PROMISED that he'd be back for my birthday! And he never breaks his promises!"

Now it was Mom's turn to speak.

"..honey...it's not like that. I'm sure that they would have managed to come home if there was any possibility of doing so..."

She then couldn't talk anymore, because she was crying too hard.

Dad then took over.

"Sid, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll have to speak plainly. Your brother and sister aren't coming back because they're dead. There was an accident of some sort...we're not quite clear on all of the details."

Sid couldn't remember much of what happened after that. Mom started crying even more loudly, but Sid was just in shock. His ears refused to believe what they had just heard. He found it increasingly difficult to breathe. Usually, when he had trouble breathing, Amon was right there with the inhaler. But Amon wasn't here anymore...

And then everything went black.

* * *

Much later, when Sid woke up, he was in his own bed. Aviva saw that he was awake and rushed over to him. He had had a very bad asthma attack, she explained.

Sid was confused. Where was Amon? He was always here when Sid was sick. But then he remembered.

He still couldn't understand. As far as he was concerned, "dead" happened to old and sick people. Neither Amon nor Ekou had been old or sick. Sid had also seen dead animals, but that wasn't the same.

Sid felt very alone right now. Amon had always been there for him, and now he was gone. Now Sid would have no one to understand him. He'd have to figure things out for himself now. He got too depressed to think about it right now, so he went back to sleep.

* * *

This tuxedo was very uncomfortable, Sid thought. The tie was a real one, and not just a clip-on. Therefore, it was choking him. Also, his shirt was buttoned up too high, his shoes pinched his feet, and his scalp still hurt from when all of the snarls had been combed out of his hair.

He had to wear this because they were at the funeral. Actually, it was technically a memorial service. Sid had been eavesdropping again, and he had overheard the servants discussing the matter. Apparently, no one had found any bodies. This confused Sid. How could people know that they were dead if they couldn't see for themselves? In the end, Sid decided that it was something best left to the grown-ups to figure out.

He wasn't crying. He had decided that he would show everyone how sophisticated he was now that he was almost eight. That, and it was like he was too sad to cry...if that even made any sense.

Sid kept still as best he could while the adults kept talking and talking. Every time he thought they were done, they found some more stuff to say. After a while, it began to get boring. So Sid snuck off when Mom and Dad weren't looking. He had his own plane for a memorial service.

He walked outside the building and took something out of his pocket. It was the drawing he had been working on that sad afternoon. He had finished it just this morning, taking great care to make it extra-good.

Sid waited until a breeze started up, and released his grip on the piece of paper. At first it fell toward the ground, but then the wind caught it. He watched it drift away, and hoped that somehow, somewhere, Amon might find it.

THE END


End file.
